


Dreams Will Come

by LMX



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: A little rushed, Because I didn't want to miss Polyam week, Eobard Thawne Spoils Everything, Multi, Polyamory, Science, Workaholic, dreaming of the future, planning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 11:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11379387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LMX/pseuds/LMX
Summary: It's the year 2000, and Harrison Wells and Tess Morgan are months from making their dreams a reality. It's time to tell Tina that they'll be moving to Central City.





	Dreams Will Come

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for the mistakes, I just wanted to get this finished in time for day seven of Polyam Week :)
> 
> This ship comes entirely from Tina's line about Harrison's poor track history of being able to protect people. Though now it's in my head, it's so very obvious that Tina's doing tachyon work so that she can go back and save Tess!

Harrison looked up from the computer screen as Tess slumped into the seat on the other side of his desk. He shot a glance at the clock and then another at his computer, cringing at the half-completed document before saving and closing it, starting the system backup that would run through the weekend. Gathering his things only took a moment, and they were on their way out of the building side by side, knocking shoulders in greeting.

"So..." Tess started. "Going back to the bombshell you dropped this morning..."

"I don't think it's a bombshell, Tess," Harrison objected, throwing his coat and bag into the back of the car. "The only question is, really, whether our arrangement with Tina would survive living and working in the same city."

Tess laughed at the blasé response. "The only question? You're serious about setting up STAR Labs in Central City. I thought you were joking."

Harrison shrugged, pulling onto the road before he started to list out his reasoning. "Central has the infrastructure, the space, the rents we can afford. Tina..."

"You make a good point, many good points. But Tina's been trying to get us to agree that Central is the better city for *years*. Think of all the bragging rights she'll have if she finally convinces us to move out there." Tess was laughing again, and Harrison's smile had gone soft. She just looked for a moment, taking him in. "Okay, okay, if you're serious about this, we should go over and pitch it to her once we're ready, show her the plans and the budgets and get her opinion. We've got to make it clear where we'd be focusing our studies, how little our work would overlap. She'll want to know that we wouldn't be bidding for government contracts against her. We can bribe her with how much more *time* we'd have together."

Harrison glanced her way, "She might not want that. We've never really discussed anything more regular, more significant."

Tess half turned in her seat. "Harrison, I don't think you understand how serious Tina is about this, about us. I think she'd be thrilled to have us closer, but you agree we should talk to her about this first? Before starting any serious planning."

"I think dinner sounds perfect," Harrison agreed. "And we can plan to look at some plots of land maybe, while we're in Central? Perhaps lunch together the next day..."

Tess covered her face, nearly shaking with the sudden realisation. "My God, my God Harry, we're seriously thinking about this. We're thinking about making STAR Labs a reality, right now."

Harrison chuckled. "It's going to be years before we see any real scientific output, you realise. Even once the land is ours and the company is set up, the amount of work it'll take just to excavate for the collider..." He shook his head. "There's so much to do, but we're making the first steps."

"Wait, where are you going? You dolt, you just missed our turning." Tess looked back down the road.

Harrison cleared his throat, and then grinned across at her. "Ah... well... Tina *might* have phoned the lab this afternoon..."

"Tonight?! But I'm still in my work clothes, I didn't bring a toothbrush... Harry, you're a goddamned menace."

Harry risked a glance over, apologetic. "I could pick us up toothbrushes from the supermarket?" he offered meekly, taking the turning off to Central.

"You're not planning on pitching STAR Labs to Tina tonight, are you?" Tess asked, eyes narrowed. "I said make a plan, draw up a budget, not spit it all out over dinner and hope she doesn't throw us out before desert!"

"We've pitched bigger with less," Harrison pointed out.

"We've never pitched bigger, Harry. This is the biggest project of our lives, and the only reason we've pitched big projects with no planning before is because you've not warned me when we have meetings with significant clients! You get us involved with crazy government contracts, and business investors who don't believe in proper planning and preparation and we only pull those projects off because we're so damned good and the investors were willing to throw money at us."

"That money - however hard earned - may be the only reason we can seriously consider getting STAR Labs off the ground," Harrison pointed out. "Tina has her backers, her family money, and we have our little nest egg. So long as she goes along with this we can run the companies entirely separately with nothing but friendly competition. And we can meet for lunch without one of us having to take a day off work - we could go out on a whim, none of this scheduling and checking calendars -"

"I note you didn't check in with *my* calendar before booking tonight," Tess pointed out.

"Tonight's special," he replied, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

Tess laughed, sharply. "Harry... Harry, what will you do if she says no? If the competition's too much of a risk or she doesn't want us so close? We know she likes her space sometimes, and this is us moving very much into her space, professionally and personally."

"If she says no then we reassess. We take another look at Starling, perhaps we can find some space that wouldn't be crazy to rent, in the suburbs maybe. We won't be as central as we would have liked, but there's always development going on, and maybe if we push we can get the power supply issues addressed..."

"Okay, okay, just so long as you haven't sold yourself completely on Central. On Tina."

"Oh, there's no doubt I'm completely sold on Tina," Harry chuckled, sobering only a little at Tess' serious look. "Let's get through tonight," he said easily, as they pulled into the center of town, working their way through the smaller roads towards Tina's apartment. "Then we can make more solid plans. Do some real preparation." He shot her a grin.

"I despair for this company, I really do," Tess moaned, pointing out the supermarket on the corner.

"I think it's going to be spectacular."

-

Tina's apartment - a tiny, cramped one-bed with a subpar shower that was a source of frequent complaints in the mornings-after their little rendezvous - was lit up brightly as they were welcomed inside. The light was as warm as Tina's greetings, pulling them into hugs and kisses almost before they were through the door, and then rushing back into the kitchen to tend dinner.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I said I'd leave work early, but then Ranveer had a breakthrough on Sook's resonance field project, and then Ashley had a blown fuse in the turbovap that she would have seen if she wasn't panicking about her project being ruined, and I only got in five minutes ago and dinner's so far from ready and..."

Tess finally quieted Tina by capturing her waist and pulling her into another kiss. "Hush," she soothed. "Hush."

Tina laughed into her shoulder as Harrison stole his own kiss and then wandered past the ladies to stir the pot on the stove. "I should learn never to invite you on a work day, I can never guarantee when I'll walk out of the door."

"I thought being project manager meant you could delegate some of this stuff," Tess laughed, pulling away to fish through the cutlery draw for a corkscrew as Harrison abandoned the bottle of wine they'd picked up on the sideboard.

"Perhaps when Mercury is more than twenty scientists, an accountant and a secretary that doubles as an HR manager. For now project manager just means I'm the one putting out the fires - literally and metaphorically - and writing all the big cheques."

Conversation flowed easily between them - as it always had - and the delay in dinner leant itself to light topics as they squeezed themselves into the tiny kitchen and started in on the wine. They wandered from Tina's easily panicked colleagues to the final days of Tess' thesis (her second), and Harrison's old supervisor (ever more eccentric) who kept asking him over for drinks and trying to get him to rejoin academia.

The guests helped themselves to crockery and cutlery, setting the table as they moved easily around each other in the small spaces, touching accidentally as often as with intent, but enjoying both the same.

They ate slowly, conversation rolling and another bottle of wine open on the table, and as they finished the last of their meal Harrison and Tess shared a glance, finding silent agreement. Tina paused, wine bottle suspended over her own glass, eyebrow raised. "What?" she asked.

"We have... something we wanted to tell you, to run past you really," Harrison offered.

"It's still a long way in the future," Tess started, "But we think we've finally saved enough to start working on our own particle collider project."

"Tess... Harry! That's fantastic! Oh it's going to be spectacular, tell me your plans. Tell me everything!"

"Well," Tess started, "We wanted to run this by you first, because Harry's made a little leap of decision making that..."

"We want to build in Central," Harrison said, interrupting Tess and cringing as she turned a glare on him.

"Of course you do," Tina said dismissively, "Central is by far the superior city, the infrastructure, the plans for the power grid..." She trailed off, looking between them. "What?"

"We were perhaps expecting to have to convince you," Tess said, her eyes bright.

Tina just started for a moment. "To have you closer?" she asked. "To have you working on ground breaking science on my doorstep? Why on Earth?"

"Well, there might be some competition issue," Harrison proposed. "We'd be setting up a full research lab, not just the accelerator. There would be projects that might..." he slowed to a stop. "Why am I trying to talk you out of this?"

Tina sighed, taking her seat again and finding a serious expression. "Healthy competition is good for a company - especially an established one. I'd have more fear of staunching your growth in the first five years. And I trust you, both of you. We'll talk about this, and we'll work around the problems." She looked down, arranging her cutlery more neatly on her plate as she collected her thoughts. "Even if - and I say this with no expectation of it coming true - even if our relationship didn't survive your relocation, if we decided to end what we have, your friendship means everything to me. We'll find a way."

Harrison sat back in his chair, chuckling to himself, and Tess nearly tipped her wine glass as she lunged across the table to kiss Tina soundly. They were both blushing and laughing as she pulled away and Harrison started clearing the table.

"I guess that's lucky," he said, piling the plates. "Because it would have been awfully late to phone the estate agent and cancel the site viewing I have booked for tomorrow."

"Harry," Tess whirled, scandalised. "You booked a *viewing*?" She threw her hands in the air. "This project is *doomed*."

Tina reached out to rest a hand on Tess' arm. "Harry's never been known for the three Ps, dearest, that's why it's so important that this project has you."

"Do you even have a budget worked out yet?" Tess pressed Harrison.

He gave her a long look. "Tess, you've been working on the budget for this project since we were twenty. You can't tell me you don't have a copy locked away in that mind of yours?"

Tess blushed, half-embarrassed, half furious. "Even so!" she retorted, and then elbowed Tina as she fell about laughing. "Shush, you."

"Well," Tina said as she stood and straightened her shirt. "Since tomorrow is so significant a day, I rather think we should get an early night." And she turned on her heel and disappeared into the bedroom.

Harrison and Tess shared an apprehensive glance. That was not how these evenings usually ended - had they just been dismissed?

"Oh Harrison," Tina called back through. "Do bring that bottle, will you?"

They scrambled up, the wine bottle seized in passing as they followed Tina into the bedroom.

-

It would have been nice to share a lazy morning, but it seemed like it wasn't to be. Tina was up and dressed by the time Tess stirred, Harrison sat up on the bed beside her, still sleep-warm. Tina smiled down at her as she brushed a kiss to Tess' sleep-mussed hair, but she was tense and Harrison was too. Tess got the feeling that whatever exchange she'd interrupted by waking was the cause.

"You okay?" she asked, flicking her gaze between the two of them.

"Perfect," Tina replied gently, "But called into work, I'm afraid."

"Oh, Tina," Tess sighed. "It's just not fair."

"You wait until you have your own projects to oversee," Tina warned with a laugh, leaning across her to kiss Harrison. "For now you should relax and enjoy your morning. If I don't make it home in time to see you off to your viewing, I'll call to hear about it tonight."

Harrison caught her hand as she pulled away. "We'll stay in Central long enough for dinner before we head home. If you can make it you should join us."

"It's a long drive, Harry - it'll be late when you get home."

Harrison pressed a kiss to her hand before releasing her. "You're worth it."

"Two evenings in a row, I'm spoiled," Tina's smile was warm. "I'll make sure I'm free by six - meet you at Margot's?"

"It's a date."

Tess scrambled up from the bed when it looked like Tina might be about to leave, pulling her into a kiss and smoothing down the tense lines of her shoulders. "Don't work too hard," she murmured, pressing her forehead into the scoop of Tina's collarbone. "We'll see you later."

-

"What were the two of you talking about so seriously this morning?" Tess asked gently, as they stood by the waterfront and whiled away the last hour before their viewing.

Harrison turning his back on the railing, pulling Tess into his side. "Tina thinks I'm leaving you out of the decision making, rushing into things too fast." He glanced down at her, shaking his head. "She just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to hurt you."

"You're a fool, but then maybe so is she. I can take care of myself."

Harrison pressed a kiss to her hair. "Tina's old fashioned, she thinks it's my job to make sure you're taken care of, and your job to challenge my patriarchal, controlling nature."

"And what's her job?"

"To point out when we're doing it wrong," Harrison laughed easily. "The senior grad student in her still thinks she's our mentor."

Tess sighed. "We're going to have to talk about this, the three of us, if we're going to move out here. She's going to have to accept that we're going to want to take care of her as much as she has always taken care of us."

"What do you mean," Harrison demanded with faux offense. "*I'm* the man in this relationship, it's my job to take care of you weak and powerless women, to protect and provide for..." Tess was laughing too hard to breathe, and Harrison stopped, smiling with adoration. "I love you both, Tess. I love you both so much."

"Well, you're a mess, but I love you too." She turned, and spotted the car pulling up at the edge of the chain link fence. "Now let's go and impulse-buy our future."

"I've never heard such a good plan. Inspired. I'm so glad you're the one in charge of this project."

-

15 Years Later

Tina stared at the tachyon drive, seeing in it the work she'd spent years... decades of her life developing. The first tachyon prototype had been the culmination of nearly ten years of research, and it had disappeared in the hands of the CCPD, but this in front of her now was complete. A few calculations and some tuning away from working, from creating a portal through time.

She was stood in front of the device that could take her back to that night. To convince herself to abandon her work and meet Tess and Harrison for dinner, to stop them from driving home so late, to stop them from ever getting into the car. Even to say screw it and go herself, just for one more moment with the two of them. One more glance at them.

She would find out later that they had waited for her that night, when she didn't turn up for dinner. Had waited late into the night and only left when it got dark. She hadn't made it out of work until midnight, and by then Tess had been dead for an hour. The next time she saw him Harrison would be a stranger to her.

There was a flicker of light in her peripheral vision - the Reverse Flash, here to check on her work - and she knew she was never going to get the chance to use the device in front of her. She could only hope that this man only wanted to use it to return home as he said.

Somehow, she feared he had something far worse in mind.


End file.
